• by Karl Greenberg , June 30, 2009

While the news has been unrelentingly bad from Detroit, the domestic automakers based there have actually performed well in recent studies by firms like J.D. Power & Associates, AutoPacific, and Strategic Vision. Ford, in fact, takes top honors in two new studies from the latter two firms, whose latest rank vehicle brands and models by how happy owners are with them and what they would change if they could.

In Strategic Vision Inc.'s 14th annual Total Quality Index (TQI), based on surveys of 20,101 buyers who bought 2008 and 2009 models in September to December of 2008, owners of both Ford and Volkswagen vehicles give top marks in perceived quality and what Strategic Vision calls "emotional delight."

Also, four of the top ten best-selling vehicles in the first quarter of this year were domestics, and Strategic Vision says vehicles from Ford, General Motors and Chrysler have all scored well with customers. Indeed, General Motors had four segment leaders: Pontiac G8, GMC Envoy, Yukon XL and the Chevrolet Corvette (which was the highest-rated TQI this year).

Volkswagen of America also had more vehicles that lead in their segments in the TQI study than any other auto brand: Rabbit, Jetta, CC, New Beetle, Tiguan and Audi A4 all lead. Ford's Focus was the leading small car.

In AutoPacific's Ideal Vehicle Awards (IVA), Ford also came out on top, along with Porsche. The study, which gauges owners' ratings of their new 2009 model-year cars and trucks across 15 key vehicle attributes, had Ford beating its own sibling brand, Mercury, for top-mainstream-brand honors. Porsche and Ford were also the highest-scoring premium and mainstream brands in last year's IVA.

Chrysler Group's Dodge Ram had the highest score of any truck in the history of the 15-year Strategic Vision TQI, the first time Ram has achieved this honor since 1999. American Honda Motors, Nissan Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Sales each led in two segments.

Ford had five winners in AutoPacific's IVA, including the F-150 large pickup, the Ford Taurus and the Lincoln Town Car, the Sport Trac and Explorer SUVs.

Of the 23 IVA categories, American brands had nine segment winners, Japanese brands seven, European brands four, and Korean brands three. Chrysler, General Motors and Honda had two wins each.

"We ask consumers that have owned their vehicles for 90 days what they would change; The vehicles whose customers suggest the fewest changes are the ones that have the highest score. Ford had both the most segment winners and the total Ford score was the highest of all mainstream brands," says Dan Hall, VP at AutoPacific, who adds that the query asks about things like "I'd like better driver visibility," or "I'd trade visibility for more style."

"Ford understands its customers. It's about product development and marketing matching the customer."